Governor Perry recently reject HB 1457 which would have given the Secretary of State’s the authority to resolve obvious typos by voter registration clerks when checking registration cards against drivers license files. State Representative Scott Hochberg sponsored the legislation because he claims that every year about 70,000 legitimate registration applications are delayed or denied, many because of clerical errors. As it turns out, the Governor’s veto proclamation had a typo of its own.

In his veto message, the Governor warned of fraud, arguing that “A misspelled name or incorrect date of birth on a voter registration application is a strong indication that the application was filled out by someone other than the rightful voter.

House Bill No. 1457 would require the secretary of state to develop a system for accepting voter registration applications when the information provided by the voter does not match the indentifying information for that individual in the records of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) or other state agencies.